1. Field of the invention
The present invention relates to electrical outlet receptacles, and, more particularly, relates to modular electrical outlet receptacles.
2. Description of the related art.
Modular electrical outlet receptacles may be included in a modular office partition, and provide flexibility in terms of system layout, interconnectability with other components of the system, etc. Typically, such a modular electrical receptacle includes at least one connector which is adapted to interfit with a corresponding connector on a wiring harness. The wiring harness typically includes a further connector at an opposing end thereof which extends to another component of the system, such as another electrical receptacle. The connector also includes contacts which are electrically connected to each of the line, neutral and ground conductors disposed within the modular electrical receptacle. The modular electrical receptacle is typically configured as a 15-Amp receptacle, meaning that the blade openings in the faceplate are disposed parallel to each other to accept a common male plug-cap. Accordingly, both the line and neutral conductors extending through the electrical modular receptacle have a portion thereof which is configured as a parallel blade socket.
A problem with known modular electrical receptacles is that they have not heretofore been able to accommodate a 20-Amp male plug-cap, such as by having a transverse blade socket for the neutral conductor which is disposed transverse to a parallel blade socket for the line conductor. In the United States, non-modular electrical receptacles may include a transverse blade socket which is combined with a parallel blade socket to define a T-slot blade socket so that either a 15-Amp or 20-Amp plug-cap may be used. However, such non-modular electrical receptacles do not include a plug-in connector providing fast and easy connection to other components of a system. On the other hand, conventional modular electrical receptacles do not include a T-slot blade socket, likely because of a perceived inability to form the conductor to properly define all of the necessary T-slot blade sockets while at the same time extending to and forming a part of the plug-in connector.
What is needed in the art is a modular electrical receptacle which includes a T-slot blade opening and corresponding T-slot blade socket, and thereby accommodates a 20-Amp male plug-cap.